Helping lawyers create more productive, profitable and enjoyable law practices

July 17, 2013

Facebook for Lawyers Tip #3: Create a Law Firm Facebook Page

While you may enjoy using Facebook to connect with family and friends, and may even post some business-related posts on your personal Facebook page occasionally, simply using Facebook Friend Lists to segregate your personal from your professional Facebook presence may not be enough for you. In that case, it may be time to create a professional Facebook Business Page for your firm (if you have the authority to do so).

Facebook wants you to use Pages
for your business presence, and it has been enhancing features and tools for businesses recently. If you want a Facebook presence for your law firm or solo
practice, Business Pages provide many benefits.

Creating Your Firm's Facebook Business Page

It's easy to create a Facebook Page for your firm. Click on the gear icon to the far right of the Facebook navigation bar and select Advertising. Click on "Create a Page" and follow the steps to build your firm's Facebook Page. Choose an appropriate name for your page, add a Profile photo (your firm logo is a good choice, or if you're a solo, you may want to use a photo of you) and a cover photo.

Choose a Cover Photo

There are special rules for cover photos for Facebook Pages, but those have been relaxed a bit recently; Pages are no longer prohibited from including a call to action in their cover photo, or limiting text to less than 20%. But these rules aside, you should use good sense, don't overcrowd your cover photo, and remember that images can have a big impact.

Choose something interesting, but make sure the cover photo represents your firm well. You might want to choose a photo of your firm's partners, or duplicate the header from your firm website. Or choose an image that uniquely represents what your firm does for its clients.

Designate Page Administrators

You can create a Page without
having your own personal Profile, if you designate a Page
Administrator with a Facebook Profile to create the Page instead, your Page will be much more functional and you'll be able to interact with other
Pages, view others’ content, send or receive Friend requests, be found in
search, and more - options not available if you simply set up a Page without a personal account.

You would be wise to add more than one Administrator to your Page so that one person doesn't have complete control of the firm's Page. And don't forget that your Page will need to abide by the
ethical rules of your jurisdiction.

It is also important to note that Business Pages are public spaces - which means anyone can see what you post on your Page. You'll also want to watch carefully what others post on your page. This moderation of others' posts and comments is one of the main reasons to use care when choosing Page Administrators.

I recommend that law firms not show posts by others on your Page's timeline until you review them. Although you could choose to not allow others to post on your Page at all, removing the ability to engage with you will reduce the usefulness of your Page. You can change these settings by going to Edit Page>Edit Settings and changing your Post Visibility settings.

Add Some Detail

You'll want to complete the "About" section of your firm's page and include contact information so potential clients and referral sources can easily find you. You can also add 'milestones' (similar to Life Events on a personal Facebook Page) to help tell the story of your firm.

Promote Your Page

Once you've created your Page, you'll want to invite others to "Like" your Page so that they'll receive your firm's Updates in their News Feed, and you'll want to include links to your Facebook Page on your website, in emails, newsletters, blog posts, etc.

Participate Regularly

Finally, to make your Law Firm Facebook page work for you, post engaging content and interact with others as your Page. But don't make it all about you - make sure that what you post keeps your audience (clients, potential clients and referral sources) in mind.

Legal Ease Consulting, Inc. Allison C. Shields

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